Welcome And July Fourth Notes

Todd Carlson 0:16

Explore your world. It's the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Inside TravelTalk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 0:52

Happy birthday, America. What a great country we live in. And what a privilege it is to be an American. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe alongside Mark Faldmo. Coming up in this edition of the show, we will be talking about 35% off and free airfare with Norwegian cruise lines, and we're also going to give you the top three destinations. And if you've always wanted to go to Eastern Europe, we're going to tell you how to get there because Globus Tours, one of our suppliers, has an amazing offer for our listeners this week. The entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation or just give you ideas of where you may want to consider going on vacation next. And we are presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com and thank you again for taking the time to stop and listen. Mark Faldmo, this is an abbreviated version of the show because you and I we're actually recorded this week because you and I are out celebrating America.

Speaker 2 1:58

Where are you today? We are. Yep. I'm just at home today, getting ready to leave to head down south to visit some family.

Travel Headlines SkyWest And Hyatt

Patrick Wiscombe 2:05

Let's get right to the travel news headlines. Skywest, if people don't know what Sky West is, is it a kind of a commuter airline regional airline?

Speaker 2 2:14

Skywest is a regional carrier and they operate, you know, like Delta Connection. They also operate American Eagle, United Express, and flights for Alaska Airlines. So they kind of contract with all the airlines to operate their shorter flights. And you know, Skywest is a company that's based right here in Utah.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:34

Sky West has ordered 60 Embraer E175 planes. They've just ordered 60 more.

Speaker 2 2:41

They ordered the 60 Ember Air E175 aircraft, which I'm excited about. These are slated to replace the older CRJ 700, which I think is a good move. The Embraer E175 is a much more comfortable aircraft to fly on than those CRJs.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:58

Hyatt has completed their $2.6 billion acquisition of Playa. What do we know?

Speaker 2 3:05

Hyatt wanted to get into the all-inclusive business, but they didn't want to jump in full force. And so they contracted out with Playa Resorts to open what are the Hyatt Ziva resorts, which are some of my favorite resorts. A little bit later on, Hyatt wanted more, and so they bought a company called AM Resorts, which has Secrets, Dreams, a lot of the really famous all-inclusives. So Hyatt kind of had these two different companies operating their hotels. So it made sense for them just to purchase Hyatt. So now all of the Hyattes are under one brand, one ownership. Play Resorts also operated several other. They operated some Wyndham All Inclusives, which are being sold off. They operated some Hilton All Inclusives, which are being incorporated into the Hyatt brand. Some of those are going to be like dreams and secrets, some of those old Hilton properties. So this does add an additional 15 hotels to the Hyatt portfolio in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:11

Because this is an abbreviated show because of the July 4th holiday. And again, happy birthday, America. I love living in this great country. And I know you do too, Mark.

Speaker 2 4:21

I do. Yeah.

Globus Escape Tours Flash Sale

Patrick Wiscombe 4:21

We're just going to jump right to the hot travel deal of the week. This was something that really caught my eye. You told me before the show, hey, I really have a good promotion this week for the hot travel deal of the week. And this is the Globus Travel Flash sale where you can save up to $500 per person on escape tours. But my first question is, and I can hear the listeners saying, Well, what are escape tours?

Speaker 2 4:45

It's not like an escape room. Um an escape tour for Globus is an off-season tour. So these are tours that operate November through March, which gives you several advantages. First is the price. These are very good prices, less crowds, which is always a good thing. One of my favorite places to go is Antwerp in Belgium. There's a main square there that's always so crowded. I had the opportunity a few years back to go there in March, and we were on the walking tour through the city and came out to this main square. I have a picture of myself, and I am the only person you can see in the whole picture in front of the main fountain. It's so nice to travel when there are fewer crowds, especially when you're going into the museums, some of the different attractions. These escape tours are designed purely around that. Less crowds and a lower price. They're typically 40 to 50 percent lower than a similar tour is in the summertime. So big savings. A big savings. Okay. So where are we going? Let's start with Imperial Escape, which is in Central Europe. This is a seven-day tour that goes from Budapest to Prague, and the other stop in that is Vienna. So you spend a few nights in Budapest, a few nights in Vienna, and a few nights in Prague.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:12

And this is not a cruise, this is a land tour.

Speaker 2 6:15

This is a land tour. Okay. Wow. A really good tour for that central Europe. The best part of it is the price. So that Imperial Escape, again, a seven-day tour starts at $1,099 per person. Wow. So that's your hotel, your transportation, you're with a professional guide, admissions to all of the places you visit, you know, tours every day. That is a very good tour. We'll move on to Scotland.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:47

I'm personally interested in this one.

Speaker 2 6:49

This one starts in Edinburgh and ends in Glasgow, or vice versa. I think this is the best itinerary. So let's do the one that starts in Glasgow. So you'll go up to Fort Williams, which is by where the Harry Potter train is at, Loch Ness, Colden Moor, which is in the Highlands, and then to Inverness, Scotland. Then you come down and you spend a night in Inverness, and then you come down, stop in St. Andrews, famous golf course. Oh, yeah. And uh then you finish the tour with a few nights in Edinburgh.

Todd Carlson 7:24

Oh wow.

Speaker 2 7:24

And this one, again, seven days is less than a thousand dollars per person. It's uh nine hundred and fifty-nine dollars per person. Wow. So if you've ever wanted to see Scotland, and you know, the one thing that's interesting about Ireland and Scotland, they're a further north latitude. So a lot of people say it's gonna be cold and snowy, but they get the warm ocean current up from Africa. So the British Isles are fairly temperate compared to us here at lower latitude than there. So you know, I remember south coast of Ireland. I was surprised because there are palm trees because the uh coconuts, whatever, come up in that current, and there's just palm trees on the south coast of Ireland. So wow. So it's cool. You'll definitely need a jacket or a coat, but it it's not weather like you know we have.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:19

So see, I would have never guessed that.

Speaker 2 8:21

Yeah, so to go during that November through March time frame to save the crowds, this is a a great tour.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:27

Yeah, it is. Okay, what other tours do we have?

Speaker 2 8:30

English Escape Tour. Again, these are all seven-day tours, and this one starts in London, a few nights in London, then you go up to Oxford, then spend a night in Stratford upon Avon, which is Shakespeare Country, and then go up to York, which is one of my favorite places. I love York going to the York Minster. They have what's called the shambles there, which is the narrow streets with glass-paned shops, just a wonderful place to walk through. And then over the last few nights in Manchester with some visits to like Liverpool and other places like that.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:08

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 9:09

And this is the most expensive one of the trips we've talked about so far. It is twelve hundred and sixty-nine dollars per person. But again, for the tour, that's an amazing price.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:23

Yeah. November to March. So we're looking November 2025 to March 2026 to save this kind of money.

Speaker 2 9:30

Yeah, to save this kind of money. And then we'll just highlight one more because this is one that's on my bucket list, the place that I want to go to, Northern Africa. So this tour starts and ends in Casablanca, goes to Casablanca, Rabat, spends two nights in Fez, two nights in Marrakesh, and then back for a few nights in uh Casablanca on the end. Morocco has just always intrigued me. My dad got back from Morocco a few weeks ago and just said it's it was an amazing trip. Yeah, because you have the Spanish influence, the Moorish influence, just a whole bunch of different cultures merged into that country, which make it fascinating.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:13

Did he say that it was better than what he had expected? He did. Yeah.

unknown 10:18

Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:19

Your dad is well traveled. Well, so are you. Who has more miles? You or your dad? You have four million miles or nearly four million miles traveled. What does he have?

Speaker 2 10:31

I probably have a little bit more because I've tracked mine more. He got laid into the kind of frequent flyer game. I'm sure if you look at it in a lifetime, he has many more miles than I have. But if you look at the frequent flyer accounts, I do.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:44

Look at the evidence. Who has more miles? It's you.

Speaker 2 10:48

Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:49

What a great experience. I like what you said. November 2025 to March 2026. 40 to 50% off what would be the normal price for these exact same tours. And I thought it was interesting how you said the w it's more temperate because of the uh the warmer weather coming up from Africa, if I got that right. Yeah. Wow. All right. Take advantage of that offer. That is uh an exclusive for our listeners from Globus. This is their flash sale. Call Mark in his office at 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And he'll also post this on BluePlanetVacations.com. When we come back, it is time for the infamous Just Cruising segment, where it's only about the cruise news and it's only about cruise deals. That is next with the Inside Travel Talk Podcast or Radio Show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 11:57

Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show is presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening. We'll be right back.com. America's best travel advisor. Call or text the show right now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Insight Travel Talk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Just Cruising Segment Returns

Patrick Wiscombe 13:14

Happy birthday to America. A beautiful country. A great country. We're still the envy of the world, and it is a privilege to be called an American. And I know that I speak for Mark, has no idea that I'm going to say this, but what an amazing opportunity to go out and see the world and then come home and just go, you know what? America's awesome. We are blessed to live here. Coming up in this segment of this abbreviated edition of the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show, we will be talking about 35% off savings, plus free airfare for a second guest, plus free excursion credits, free Wi-Fi, also unlimited bar and free specialty dining. This is the infamous just cruising segment done a little bit earlier than we normally do it. Normally we do it at the bottom of the hour, but since Mark and I are on holiday right now, because of the holiday, we're doing an abbreviated

Why Private Shore Excursions Win

Patrick Wiscombe 14:34

version of the show. Mark, let's get right to the cruise news headlines. Cruise guests are increasingly asking for private premier shore excursions. I love this idea.

Speaker 2 14:46

This was two groups that kind of do third-party shore excursions. One is Shore Excursions Group, which is who I recommend and who I use all the time. They're just saying their demand for private shore excursions has about tripled in the last few years.

Patrick Wiscombe 15:01

Can I make an important distinction here? So there's cruise ship excursions that you pay for, but this is actually a uh, should I call them a private company called Shore Excursions Group?

Speaker 2 15:13

Yes. Okay. That's correct. So they're a third-party shore excursion provider. So they often take a lot of the tours that you find on board a cruise ship, do them in a little bit smaller groups for a better price. And so that's what Shore Excursion Group is known for. But now they're really starting to add these private shore excursions. I think a private shore excursion is much better than the group shore excursions. Sometimes they're a little bit more expensive, but I do have an example here. I have a family going on a Mediterranean cruise over Christmas, and we were looking uh for shore excursions for them, and they wanted to go in Barcelona up to Montserrat to the monastery. And so the cruise line shore excursion was $105 per person. So that's with a group of 30 or 40. And I was looking at short excursions group, and they have a private shore excursion, so up to eight people. It's was a hundred and forty dollars per person. It's not a whole lot more than what the cruise line was offering. No. But you're in your own vehicle with your own guide and your own driver.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:23

And that's the difference right there.

Speaker 2 16:25

Yep. And so these private shore excursions, I think, are the way to go. And actually, probably the last three or four months, I've sold more of these private shore excursions in three months than I've probably sold in my whole career.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:39

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 16:40

It's a great way to do this, especially like in Europe. Like if you're in Rome, for instance, you know, those are long days, those are 10 to 12 hours long shore excursions. The same family. Now, this is not on a shore excursion because they're spending a day in Rome, but this can be done as a private shore excursion from the port. They had a family of seven, and they did a full-day tour for about eighteen hundred dollars of Rome. It includes the entrance to the Sistine Chapel, entrance to the Coliseum, all of the sites. And so to do that one as a private shore excursion just makes a lot of sense.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:16

Do you cut to the front of the line?

Speaker 2 17:17

You do. Most of these have the skip the line entrances at a lot of the places.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:22

So I would rather pay a little bit more to get a better experience than to just stand in line all day.

Speaker 2 17:28

For those that are interested in just looking at these, on the Blue Planet Vacations website, there's a tab for shore excursions. You can look at that, or just in the cruise booking engine down at the very bottom, it says cruise shore excursions. If you click on that, it'll take you to this and you can look at all of the private shore excursions or just all of the shore excursions in general.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:48

I didn't know that was on the website, so I'm glad you brought that up. Always in the infamous just cruising segment is the cruise deal of the week. This is what we're famous for. And we've got Norwegian cruise lines. It's 35% off savings, plus free

Norwegian Promo Free Airfare Details

Patrick Wiscombe 18:05

airfare for a second guest, free excursion credit, free Wi-Fi, also unlimited bar, and free specialty dining. That's a lot of free. And what promotions do we have? Well, you know what? My first question is, Mark, how does free airfare work with this promotion?

Speaker 2 18:23

So, you know, this is a promotion uh that Norwegians had for a while, but it is very good. So it is free airfare for the second person. So the first person pays whatever Norwegian's rate is for that, and then the second person goes free. And sometimes this is a very good deal, and it literally is almost 50% off the regular price. So we've talked about the Hawaii to Tahiti cruise. Yeah. When I had a group that did that, the first person paid about twelve hundred dollars and the second person was free. So that was basically six hundred dollars a person when you average it all out to go fly to Hawaii and fly home from Tahiti. So sometimes you can find that this is a great way to go. Now, the drawback with doing the cruise line air, and this is true of almost every cruise line, is you don't have any say in the airline or flight schedule. When you buy their airfare, they put you on whatever fits within their contracts. Right. So it's a great way to save money, but you do have to understand that you don't have a say in what airline or what flight schedule you're on. But other parts of this promotion, the free shore excursion credits, so you get a shore excursion credit in each port, which helps you save money. The free Wi-Fi package, which is also it's like 75 or 120 minutes free, you know, something like that. So this is a really good solid promotion by Norwegian.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:47

What are the destinations? Let's start there.

Speaker 2 19:49

I just picked what I think are the three best cruise promotions, cruise departures for Norwegian. Interesting how

Three Sailings Worth Pricing Out

Speaker 2 19:56

I found this on the Blue Planet Vacations website. You can go in to the cruise search, but you could just put in a date and look at all cruise lines and find the best prices for a certain month. So this one I just put in Norwegian cruise line, put in January to see what their best prices were, and it pulled up every single sailing of Norwegian in January. So I could search through all of the best prices.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:19

So this is customer facing, meaning whoever's listening could literally go to blueplanetvacations.com and do what you're doing. It's not something they have to call you for.

Speaker 2 20:28

Correct. Yeah, they could go and do the research on the cruise they want, they can book it online, or they can call us to book their cruise. So the first itinerary looked at was just a seven-day Mexican Riviera itinerary in January. This was a January 18th date. The price is $5.99 per person, but a balcony is $8.79 per person.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:51

Oh wow.

Speaker 2 20:52

So for a mid-January date, this is pretty good. And that's just the standard Mexican Riviera, Cabo, Mazatlon, Porta Vallarta. And then you get that promotion that we talked about. Is that on the Bliss? That's on the Bliss. Okay. Yeah. We'll move on to the Caribbean. This is a round trip from New Orleans. Its ports are Cozumel, Harvest K, Roatan, and Costa Maya, uh, before it gets back to New Orleans. This is several January dates that are about the same. Starts at 659 per person. Balcony cabins are 889 per person. So a great way to get out of the cult Roatan, one of my favorites. Also Costa Maya, one of my favorites.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:35

So out of the seven days, you have four port days. Four port days. Wow. Okay. What's the last one?

Speaker 2 21:41

The last one is a repositioning cruise. I think this one is interesting. It's December. It's the first part of December, leaves December 6th, and it is Barcelona to La Romana in the Dominican Republic. Now, this one would be a perfect itinerary on Norwegian to look at that second person flies free. Oh yeah, it would. Because I'm sure the airfare rate on this would be fantastic.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:06

How many days is this one?

Speaker 2 22:07

So this one is a 16-day cruise. Leaves from Barcelona, goes to Malaga in Spain, Cadiz, Casablanca, that we were just talking about in Morocco. Right. Goes to one other port in Morocco. And then it goes to Porto Grande, which is a port off of Africa. And then sails across to St. Martin, Tortola, and then ends in La Romana.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:34

Do you go to Phillipsburg on this one?

Speaker 2 22:36

You do.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:38

If you go to Phillipsburg, St. Martin, go to Maho Beach, and that's the famous place where you can go to the beach and the planes fly over your head. One of the best experiences I've ever had in my life.

Speaker 2 22:50

I love that activity too. There's a a bar there that has kind of a deck that just looks out over that. So I just go and have lunch there and watch the planes land and watch the people get blown over by the planes.

Patrick Wiscombe 23:04

So I was behind one of those jet blasts. Wear eye protection. Yes. Yeah. You'll get a face full of sand. What ship is this on, Mark? For the 16-day repositioning cruise?

Speaker 2 23:19

This is on the Norwegian Sky, which is one of the Norwegian's smaller vessels. It's about 92,000 gross tons. So it actually is the smallest in their fleet right now. The best part of this is the price. 16 days inside cabin starts at 11.29 per person. Wow. And the balcony starts at 28.14. The price is the best part, but probably that itinerary, that is one of the more interesting repositioning itineraries that I've seen. It has more ports than most itinerary and you know less days at sea. So it the longest it has is four days at sea. Most of those would have five to seven days at sea. So you are breaking up days at sea on this itinerary.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:02

Take advantage of that. That 16-day repositioning cruise. Did you say it was December what 6th, 2025, somewhere right there?

Speaker 2 24:19

December 6th through December 22nd.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:21

Oh man. Take advantage of those offers. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And you can also go to Blue Planet Vacations.com. Well, that's it for this abbreviated version of the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and radio show. You can listen to this very show again tomorrow

Booking Links And Final Sendoff

Patrick Wiscombe 24:47

morning, Sunday at 11 a.m. right here on this radio station and of course around the country. Plus, you can stream, download, and subscribe to the podcast at inside travel talk.com. We're on all of the major podcast platforms. And you can just stream the show right on the website. Now it's your turn to get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally. Thanks for listening. Happy birthday, America. We'll talk to you next Saturday and Sunday. Have a great week.

Todd Carlson 25:25

That's it. That's the end of the show. You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888 718 7717. That's 888 718 7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.